This Day in History: , Emmett Till Is Murdered.
August 28, 1955.
The 14-year-old Chicagoan was murdered while visiting family in Money, MS. Unprepared for the level of racism in Mississippi, Till had openly flirted with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, on a dare from his friends.
Four days later, the woman's husband, Roy, and her brother, J.W.
Milam, drove to where Emmett was staying and kidnapped him from his family.
Emmett was beaten, and his eyes were gouged out.
He was shot in the head, chained to a cotton gin fan and then thrown into the Tallahatchie River.
Though he had been violated beyond recognition, when his body was found, Till's mother demanded he was displayed in an open casket for his funeral.
Despite outrage sparked by the photo of Emmett in his coffin, it took an all-white jury less than an hour to acquit the two men of his murder.
